Demand for increasing visual display resolution has resulted in large corresponding increases in image data size and associated transmission bandwidth usage. For example, higher transmission bandwidths have resulted from increasing visual display resolution in gaming devices, video display devices, mobile computing, general purpose computing, etc. In addition, the growing popularity of virtual reality (“VR”) and augmented reality (“AR”) systems, particularly those using head mounted displays, has further increased such demand. Virtual reality systems typically envelop a wearer's eyes completely and substitute a “virtual” reality for the actual view (or actual reality) in front of the wearer, while augmented reality systems typically provide a semi-transparent or transparent overlay of one or more screens in front of a wearer's eyes such that an actual view is augmented with additional information.
However, such head mounted displays, with reduced distance between a viewer's eye and the display and often with a fully obscured field of view, have increased the performance requirements of displays in ways that traditional display and transmission capabilities cannot satisfy, while also often focusing a wearer's gaze and attention on only a portion of the display.